A new initiative has been launched to stop drivers speeding near a Leigh school.Oh? An accident related to speeding, then?
Fairways Primary School, in The Fairway, became involved in the community speedwatch project after a child was hurt in an accident outside the school.
The school joined the scheme after Kai Johnson, six, was hit by a car as he used a puffin crossing outside the school with his mum Lisa and sister Lulu, four, in February.Ah. No. An accident related to not obeying the traffic laws and stopping for a pedestrian crossing.
Not sure how that would ever be solved with a speed camera….
10 comments:
I's all about the money, not the children. Would it be cynical of me to wonder what the school's cut is?
This is an excuse to use a speed camera to make more money of course, not for any safety consideration.
>The project will see ten trained Kapos^W volunteers use a hand-held speed gun to catch speeding drivers.
So did young Kai check that the car had actually stopped? I mean, you don't just blunder out there hoping for right-of-way, do you?
You might well do that if you'd not been taught properly by your parents. I wonder where his mother (Lisa) and his sister, Lulu (WTF?) were.
The little bugger ran out on the crossing by my reckoning. His mother appears to be plastering over his poor discipline by blaming evil motorists.
I have to agree with comments by the wonderfully named "Ivanna Goodhump" on the original article ..
"So we impose a 20 mph limit 24 hours a day, seven days a week yet pupils only enter and leave school for one hour at each end of the day, 5 days a week - how bloody stupid is that" ?
That's precisely what my local council have done, close to where I live .. the road concerned, which effectively forms the slightly curved base of an elongated triangle, contains the entrances to two schools .. some 3/4 of a mile apart ..
The road starts at 30 mph .. then just before the first school drops to 20 mph .. which continues until one has passed the second school, where it reverts to 30 mph again .. all the adjacent side turnings, which are residential streets revert from 30 mph to 20 mph approx 150 yards from their junctions with the main (20 mph zone) road ..
Whilst I can appreciate & agree with reduced speed limits at times when children are entering, or exiting the schools .. I cannot see the sense in this being applied, for example during the school holidays ..
As we know, speed is the root of all evil on the roads.
Speed cameras can also detect drunk drivers, apparently
@ Curmudgeon ..
Hmmm .. I'd also like to see one which can detect Tail-gating, Insecure Loads, Dangerous or Reckless Driving, Without Due Care, No Insurance, Vehicle Defects etc ..
Speed Cameras (or Safety Cameras, if you're of a delicate nature) were only ever intended as policing on the cheap .. as they didn't require training, paying, clothing, leave, never went off sick, didn't have to attend court & didn't qualify for pensions ..
Money-making machines for all concerned .. as evidenced by the fact that once the funding dried up .. they're being turned off ..
One day someone will do a survey into the amount of time pedestrians are willing to wait for a decent gap in the traffic before crossing. My theory is that two minutes is considered a 'lifetime' so they will take greater risks the longer they hover on the kerb.
The other day I saw such a family of three with a lead-pulling dog anxiously twitching to cross a busy road. Fifty yards away was an island they could at least have taken some refuge on. Two hundred yards away was a controlled crossing (unused) but they were wanting the traffic at that point on the road to part like the red sea and so make a rush for it.
I hope they made it, though sometimes I hear they don't...
If young Kai's mother (and/or father) contacts me I am sure we can obtain proper compensation for hsi injuries and the psychological trauma he has suffered and will suffer for years to come.
"I's all about the money, not the children."
Spot on!
"This is an excuse to use a speed camera to make more money of course, not for any safety consideration."
Indeed. Like Clarissa, I wonder what the school's payoff is..
"His mother appears to be plastering over his poor discipline by blaming evil motorists."
A young lad in a road nearby used to play 'chicken', running out between parked cars. One day, he misjudged, and ended up paralysed.
The family won thousands and thousands in compensation, and the elderly (blameless) driver, to the best of my knowledge, never drove again...
"That's precisely what my local council have done, close to where I live.."
Snap! We have a nearby road just like it.
"Speed cameras can also detect drunk drivers, apparently"
Gah!
"One day someone will do a survey into the amount of time pedestrians are willing to wait for a decent gap in the traffic before crossing. My theory is that two minutes is considered a 'lifetime' so they will take greater risks the longer they hover on the kerb."
A local road is well-known for being a danger - it's got a bus-stop opposite a Sainsbury, and will pedestrians walk a few yards to the crossing to reach it safely? Oh, no, of course not.
All ages, colours, creeds - they walk straight across the road as soon as they exit the store...
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